ryuganji: film news from japan

Kawasaki Minoru (left), the piss-taking parodymeister with the wide-eyed grin of a psychopath, is currently shooting what might be described as the second film in his ‘hair phase’ after “The Rug Cop” (Zura Deka): “Kamigakari”, in which veteran actress Natsuki Mari plays a hairdresser who transforms the humdrum lives of her customers through her styling panache. Kawasaki says on his blog it’ll be without his customary animal-suit antics and belly laughs, but there will be a song or two. Nonami Maho, Kato Kazuki and Miyaji Mao round out the cast, and a release is slated for May next year. (source: Kawasaki Minoru’s blog)

Actor Okuda Eiji enjoyed some success last year with his third directorial effort “A Long Walk” (Nagai Sanpo), which strolled away with the Montreal World Film Festival’s grand prize. Earlier this month, he held advance screenings of his latest film “Out of the Wind” (Kaze no Sotogawa) down south in his newly acquired cinema, the Shimonoseki Scala-za Theatre Zero in Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi. Okuda and his Zero Pictures company came to the rescue of the ailing Scala-za picture house, the only one left in the city, refurbishing it and installing himself as manager. Shimonoseki happens to be the birthplace of legendary actresses such as Tanaka Kinuyo and Kogure Michiyo as well as the location for several recent films, but would have been left cinema-less without Okuda’s intervention.

“Out of the Wind” centers around Mariko (Okuda’s daughter Ando Sakura), a soloist in her high school choir who dreams of becoming an opera singer, and a third-generation Zainichi Korean named Sung Moon (Sasaki Takao). When he causes her to lose some important sheet music, she asks him to be her bodyguard on the walk home from school to make up for it. The two grow closer, but Sung Moon never tells Mariko his name in order to conceal his racial identity. Then she loses her position as soloist and loses herself in despair, while Sung Moon becomes involved in some unsavory goings-on. Although drawn to each other, the gap between them grows ever wider… Other cast members include Kitamura Kazuki, Natsuki Mari and Okuda himself. The film begins its roadshow release on December 22nd at Shinjuku’s K’s cinema. (source: Cinematopics)

Remember those pieces I wrote a while back (here and here) about Japanese fans of The Simpsons up in arms about celebrity scabs replacing the series’ established local voice cast for the feature version? Some uplifting news - sometimes the good guys do win. Thanks to the all the bad publicity generated by more than 10 years of loyal viewership being flushed down the toilet by “a bunch of marketing heads and Dentsu types who take magazines like Leon [a style rag for appearance-conscious middle-aged men] seriously and only give a shit about women, money and clothes”, as critic Machiyama Tomohiro so elegantly put it, 20 Century Fox Home Entertainment Japan have announced that the original Japanese cast will be reinstated for the film’s DVD release. If you’re in Japan and just want to see it with English dialogue, rest assured that there will be subtitled prints as well as the dubious dubbed edition.